Sound In The Signals - Best EPs Of 2015

Well it's that time again. The end of the year is always a cool time to reflect back on the albums, mixtapes, EPs, etc... that we enjoyed. Below is a list of Sound In The Signals best EPs of 2015. The first 15 are discussed and pictured and the remaining EPs are just listed. As always some of the ones lower on the list that weren't discussed have potential to become favorited over others in the course of years to come. There is only so much time to listen to music and some things don't always get as many minutes to shine as other things for various reasons. So some of these may just fall lower than their potential and may become more of a staple later on down the line. That all comes with spending more time with an album or with it just finally clicking with me on that level that takes it up a notch higher in my mind. Only time can tell with those.

01.Bonfires - The Way This Ends
I was really excited when Bonfires signed with Bad Timing Records. I enjoyed their previous material and I expected a big step up for their BTR debut. This EP was everything I wanted it to be. The band exceeded my expectations and just put out an insanely solid batch of emo/punk songs. Sadly with the EP came the announcement that their vocalist had departed the band. I kind of listened to this one with the bittersweet knowledge that this might be the peak of the band. In all cases I'm excited to see what both parties do in the future and I enjoyed this EP a lot.

02.rationale. - Confines
This project features members of two pop/punk bands that I really enjoy, Real Friends and Knuckle Puck. I had some high expectations. I think it really lived up to those expectations. I think this is some of the best stuff that Dan Lambton has sang for a while. Overall it's a really solid project and I enjoyed it all the way through.

03.Airs - Apart
Mixing elements of indie rock and shoegaze is something that this band does insanely well. This EP is heavy, emotional, and at times some of those heavy guitars remind me of Deftones White Pony-era. It's a solid EP and the last with the band's frontman at the time. It's definitely a band hitting their stride in a really great way on this EP.

04.Modern Baseball - The Perfect Cast
This surprise Modern Baseball EP kind of serves as a prelude to their upcoming album in 2016. I thought this sounded a little rough around the edges in both bad and good ways, but overall I think they came correct with a solid set of songs. I think this was a really fun EP and the band continue to carve out their spot in the quirky emo/pop/punk world in a cool way.

05.Bones - Frayed
Bones released a ton of projects and this is one of three to make my best of lists (the other two are on the best albums list). I think this project is fairly short and concise, which makes it a good listen. It's a great introduction to Bones and his style which is kind a of minimal lo-fi singing meets rap vibe. Overall I think Bones had a great 2015 and I am really looking forward to seeing what 2016 has in store for him.

06.Holt - Cover Me
The man once named Hollywood Holt returned as Holt this year with, finally, some new music and a new style. He released two extremely solid original songs, but he only officially released an EP as kind of a teaser to his upcoming 2016 album. Usually cover songs are par for the course and not overall noteworthy. I think what Holt did with these songs was really interesting not only with the production but also with the vocals and overall performance. It is really neat. He took these songs and really made them his own and the EP just stuck out to me. I kept coming back to it.

07.Blis.- Starting Fires In My Parents House
This is a nice slice of emo-revival style music. I thought this EP flowed nicely. When the whole "emo-revival" thing started to drizzle off mid-way through 2015, maybe even earlier, this was an EP that I kept returning to because it captured elements of why the style should maintain at least some relevance in the emo/pop/punk scene moving forward.

08.You, Me, And Everyone We Know - Dogged
It's another triumphant return for YMAEWK. After a couple self-released EPs Ben, from YMAEWK, kicked the party back up a notch by signing to a new label for this release. He also seemed to just put more into this EP in terms of making it a bigger deal for the band. It really seemed like the year YMAEWK kicked back into medium gear after being slightly in hibernation. I'm hoping that he kicks things into high gear in 2016 with the long awaited follow-up album to their debut album, which I thought was very good. In the meantime Dogged is on par with some of the best music this project has ever released.

09.Father - Papicodone
This is one of the better flowing projects from Father. It is short and focused and every song on it has a good vibe. I also think the beat choices are good and really compliment the rapping style nicely.

10.Home For Fall - Everything I Never Said
This was a solid pop/punk EP. I really enjoyed the songwriting, vocals, and lyrics. This is one of the newer pop/punk bands that I could see gaining some real momentum in the future. The vocalist/guitarist is a really good frontman and performs nicely on the EP.

11.WSTR - SKRWD
I think this EP captured a lot of energy. There are some nice, well written pop/punk songs on this one and I like when the band just keeps up the energy. I also thought the EP flowed really nicely.

12.OG Maco x Rome Fortune - Yep
I kind of expected OG Maco to have a slightly more standout year possibly in the form of a big debut album. He definitely started strong with this EP. Instead we got a handful of mixtape style EPs. It's still quality stuff overall, but I'm really interested to finally get the album. He was featured on the "Doctor Pepper" single, which was really interesting. This project was a pretty interesting collaboration. It's a great pairing of two rappers who were having a pretty standout year in 2014 carrying over the hype in January 2015 for this EP.

13.Now.Here - New Perspective
This is well written and well constructed pop/punk. This band wrote a great set of songs for this one. I really enjoy the vocals on this one a lot.

14.Coastbound - Wasting Your Breath
It's a really solid, super catchy pop/punk EP. It really reminds me of how catchy, promising, and immediately fun pop/punk can be when I listen to this.

15. The Cherry Wave & Airs - Split EP
I rarely include two artists releases on the same list. Usually I just pick their best release and let it shine. I picked this split mainly for the Airs songs on it. I really enjoyed Airs' Apart this year, but that was the last with their current lead vocalist. With that being the case and the change-up in the band I felt like this split deserved to be on the list, as well. This split features the new female vocalist, Sam Retton, and I was really interested to hear how the band would approach the member change. These two songs show that the band has a pretty bright future and the vocalist change-up didn't hurt them at all.  Retton's vocal style suits the band perfectly and honestly it adds just a little mid-90s alternative grunge vibe to the sound, which I thought was cool. Even though Airs is the reason I picked the split for the list I will say The Cherry Wave contributed two strong tracks as well.

16-50:
16.You Blew It! - Pioneer Of Nothing
17.Your Old Droog - Kinison
18.Free - Demo 2015
19.Iamsu! - Eyes On Me
20.Letter High - Skin And Bones
21.Mick Jenkins - Wave[s]
22.Sycamore - Here's to Never Fitting In
23.D.R.A.M. - Gahdamn!
24.ILoveMakkonen - ILoveMakkonen
25.A Will Away - Bliss
26.Head North - Bloodlines
27.Grayscale - Change
28.Like Pacific - Like Pacific
29.WATERMEDOWN - Somewhere Sleepless
30.Firestarter - A Life Inconsistent
31.Real Friends - More Acoustic Songs
32.Begin Again - Everything is changing
33.Wintering - Close Enough
34.Boston Manor - Saudade
35.Iglooghost - Chinese Nü Yr
36.Chance The Rapper X Lil B - Based Freestyles
37.Sudden Suspension - There's A Bigger Picture Here
38.Open Mike Eagle - A Special Episode Of
39.Mick Jenkins - Wave[s]
40.FKA twigs - M3LL155X
41.Candy Hearts - Acoustic EP
42.Nef the Pharaoh - Nef the Pharaoh
43.Wiz Khalifa & Ty Dolla $ign - Talk About it in the Morning
44.Sempervivi - Artifacts
45.Curren$y - Even More Saturday Night Car Tunes
46.50 Cent - The Kanan Tape
47.King Louie - 6 God Tony
48.Azizi Gibson - Grim Meets Evil
49.Sam Gellaitry - Short Stories and Escapism
50.Tennyson - Like What